Also the "Americans that are uninsured" numbers you'll find are usually 1/3rd-1/4th illegal aliens... who aren't covered by universal plans 9 times outta 10 anyway.

Who pretty much aren't covered under any health care plan.

Those are some pretty inflammatory statements, you might want to get some links to some data on that, lest you just sound like a Rush Limbaugh wanna-be.

It was generous, but there are two factors at work in my grade in education:  (1) he's picked a reformer rather than a teacher's union crony as Education secretary; and (2) he's said a lot of promising things.  Yes, I know he says a lot that turns out to be utter bullshit, much like most politicians.  And certainly I would prefer a much more revolutionary approach due to the fact that our education system, outside of certain rich areas, is completely broken.  But I think this could be an area of advance if the administration sticks to its guns.  To be honest, I think the Department of Education should be shut down and its responsibilities returned to their rightful place (states and localities), but Congress would have to do that, not Obama.

I guess I could dig it up.  Though most of that data actually comes from the Huffington Post.  One of the most liberal newspapers in the country.

The truth is... most healthcare numbers are grossly inflated.

When they do studies about "How many people die a year because they don't have access to healthcare" all they do is compare the death rates of those with healthcare and those without.

Ignoring the fact that those without healthcare are usually poorer... and even in places like the UK there are HUGE gaps in life expectancy between the rich and poor.

One good reason is that it could prevent the people who do pay insurance from having to pay for emergency care of those who don't have insurance.

If I've heard it right, many people who don't have insurance only go to the hospital when they're in really bad shape. In such a situation they qualify for "free" emergency care, which is actually much more expensive than preventing the problem or treating it at an earlier stage. If everyone had insurance, other people wouldn't be paying for those.

Alternatively, those who don't want insurance could waive the right to receive emergency care. But as we all know, that raises way too many issues to be a realistic alternative.

Another alternative would be to add the cost of emergency care to the tax statement of the person in question. This might be more realistic.

Really, this just does a good job of it.

Most advanced one we have i believe.

http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/p60-235.pdf


When you read the whole thing it pains a much different picture then just reading the number.

From the actual census... it states it under reports insurance for a variety of reasons.

17% of people with Medicaid for example report not having any health insurance.

43 Million people are on medicaid. So that's 7.31 Million people.

So 46 million uninsured drops to 38.70.

7% of those surveyed are undocumented residents... and likely don't have health insurance. It's about 9.4... this of course

Drops us to 29.3 million

Now, 14.4% of people who make 50K or more don't get health insurance.

Along with 7.8% of people who make 75K or more.

This is about the 4th and 5th quartiles in america. (A little more but lets be conservative.)


14.4% of the 4th quartile is 8.75 + 7.8% of the 5th quartile 4.74. = 13.49 million

So that leaves us with...

15.81 Million uninsured... but there is still more. But i'm breaking this up into two posts.

So we're down to 15.81 Million Americans without health care. Or 5 of the US population%? (Less actually since I was being conservative.)


Now then. Looking at said report. What are some other reporting flaws. One stated is that it only counts if you are uninsured at that time.

The research they link to is old... but shows that of that 47% reported as uninsured...

between 30%-48% of the people listed as uninsured aren't uninsured for the entire year. In other words... changing jobs, and stuff like that. Most of these people do get insurance again due to the lack of increase in proportion. As for how much this should knock off. Can't say since this likely settles more towards that high end.



According to this... up to 14 million people who qualify for medicaid don't sign up.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/25/who-are-the-uninsured/

That would shockingly bring the number down to 1.81 million uninsured Americans who don't choose to be as such... though I'm not sure where he gets his number from... though I do know the number is pretty significant.

And this is still yet ignoring young people who just don't want insurance becuase they feel they don't need it.

What we really need is just a program to let people know they qualify for Medicaid.

We could be getting ready to spend 1 trillion dollars for 2 million americans healthcare....

An extention of Medicaid, a public campaign policy and a slight change in insurance rules for those with "preexisting" conditions would be so much cheaper, efficent and effective.

Actually you can go into an emergency room if you have a stuffy nose to my knowledge.

Just a cursory glance on my part at your numbers but it doesn't seem that you have accounted for potential overlap in some of these groups.  They aren't all mutually exclusive so it would seem appropriate to try and account for it somehow....

Even so if you used a fairly high estimate and said 30% of the total reductions are multiply counted individuals its still way too much money for not enough people covered.

I don't see where much overlap could occur.

Illegal aliens don't qualify for medicaid.

People who make 50K or more don't make medicaid... and I can't see many of them being illegal aliens.

I don't see that much room for overlap.

Though I agree even  high with huge overlap... it really shows how you always need to track down the source of numberse and disect them.